Business news in brief
Wages fell nearly 4% year on year due to cost of living
The gap between pay rises and the soaring cost of living remained at record highs in the three months to November, figures have shown, laying bare the struggles facing millions of families across the UK. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows real wages fell 3.9 per cent during September to November compared to the year before, after taking consumer prices index inflation into account against wages. It is the jointhighest drop in real earnings since the three months to April 2009.
Meanwhile, the 467,000 working days lost to labour disputes in November was the highest since November 2011.
Profits predicted to be £20m down for THG
THG, formerly The Hut Group, has warned that profits will be lower than expected after a further slowdown in sales growth. The online retailer said it is now due to report adjusted earnings of £70m-£80m for 2022, down from £100m to £130m. It has launched a strategic review into loss-making parts of its OnDemand division, which includes websites such as Zavvi and Pop In A Box, as it seeks to focus further on beauty and nutrition.
Group revenues increased by 3.3 per cent in 2022 against the previous year, dipping below market expectations. PA
London rent ended the year almost 11% higher
Rents at the top end of the London market ended 2022 10.9 per cent higher than when the year started, according to an estate and lettings agent. Demand from tenants is continuing to significantly outweigh supply, Savills said. Jessica Tomlinson, research analyst at Savills, said: “The ongoing imbalance between demand and supply is expected to continue to drive rental growth.” Smaller properties in lower price bands now tend to be outperforming larger, more expensive rental homes, Savills added. PA
Autonomous vehicles burn carbon equivalent to data centres
A global fleet of about 1 billion autonomous vehicles, each driving for just one hour a day, would generate as much carbon emissions as the world’s data centres, according to a study. The MIT research, published in IEEE Micro, modelled potential energy consumption and emissions if autonomous vehicles are more widely adopted. Data centres currently account for about
0.3 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions – roughly equivalent to the output of Argentina.
The study found vehicles need to limit computing consumption to less than 1.2kw of power in future unless emissions are to grossly exceed those of data centres. It requires a doubling of hardware efficiency every year, the study found.
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